Syria current situation: as conditions continue to deteriorate due to Syria’s civil war, human trafficking has

increased; Syrians remaining in the country and those that are refugees abroad are vulnerable to trafficking; Syria is
a source and destination country for men, women and children subjected to forced labour and sex trafficking; Syrian
children continue to be forcibly recruited by government forces, pro-regime militias, armed opposition groups, and
terrorist organizations to serve as soldiers, human shields, and executioners; ISIL forces Syrian women and girls and
Yazidi women and girls taken from Iraq to marry its fighters, where they experience domestic servitude and sexual
violence; Syrian refugee women and girls are forced into exploitive marriages or prostitution in neighbouring
countries, while displaced children are forced into street begging domestically and abroad.

1. Introduction

Seven years into the Syria crisis, Syrian refugees remain in exile as their country continues to face a protracted
conflict and an overwhelming humanitarian crisis. With 13.1 million people requiring humanitarian assistance in
Syria and 5.5 million Syrian refugees worldwide1 (mainly hosted in Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq and Egypt), this
remains the world’s largest displacement crisis.

As of 31 December 2017, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) recorded 655,624 registered
Syrian refugees in Jordan2, a number that has remained consistent over the past three years, mainly due to the
increased entry restrictions into the Kingdom. Close to 80 per cent of registered refugees live outside the camps,
primarily concentrated in urban and rural areas in the northern governorates of Jordan, with lesser populations in
the southern governorates3. The remaining Syrian refugees live in camps, mainly in Zaatari Camp (±80,000), Azraq
Camp (±36,040)4 and the Emirati Jordanian Camp (±7,000). They are to be added to the multiple other refugee
populations and persons of concerns that Jordan hosts, including 65,922 Iraqis, and more than 13,000 from Sudan,
Somalia, and Yemen.5

The significant influx of refugees over the last seven years has had an impact on service delivery and generated the
need for humanitarian assistance. In response to this crisis, the international community worked with the
government of Jordan to create the Jordan Compact, a ground-breaking deal that aims to provide 200,000 work
permits for Syrian refugees in exchange for preferential access to the European market as well as access to
conditional financing from the World Bank. More than two years on, and on the eve of another international
Conference, the needs of Syrian refugees in Jordan remain staggering. The economic hardship which is affecting
Jordan has significantly impeded the implementation of the Jordan Compact. While progress has been made to
improve the legal status of Syrian refugees in Jordan, many barriers to economic opportunities, quality education
and access to essential services prevent the fulfilment of their rights, exacerbate their vulnerability and raise major
protection concerns.

Based on INGOs research, assessments and testimonies, this third edition of the JIF Protection brief aims to highlight
the severe consequences of limited legal status for Syrian refugees in Jordan, the specific vulnerabilities that derive
from it and the everyday impact of these restrictions.

Myanmar

over half of Burma's population consists of diverse ethnic groups who have substantial numbers of kin in neighboring
countries; the Naf River on the border with Bangladesh serves as a smuggling and illegal transit route; Bangladesh
struggles to accommodate 29,000 Rohingya, Burmese Muslim minority from Arakan State, living as refugees in Cox's
Bazar; Burmese border authorities are constructing a 200 km (124 mi) wire fence designed to deter illegal cross-
border transit and tensions from the military build-up along border with Bangladesh in 2010; Bangladesh referred its
maritime boundary claims with Burma and India to the International Tribunal on the Law of the Sea; Burmese forces
attempting to dig in to the largely autonomous Shan State to rout local militias tied to the drug trade, prompts local
residents to periodically flee into neighboring Yunnan Province in China; fencing along the India-Burma international
border at Manipur's Moreh town is in progress to check illegal drug trafficking and movement of militants; over
100,000 mostly Karen refugees and asylum seekers fleeing civil strife, political upheaval, and economic stagnation in
Burma were living in remote camps in Thailand near the border as of May 2017

IDPs: 635,000 (government offensives against armed ethnic minority groups near its borders with China and
Thailand, natural disasters, forced land evictions) (2017)

stateless persons: 495,939 (2017); note - Rohingya Muslims, living predominantly in Rakhine State, are Burma's main
group of stateless people; the Burmese Government does not recognize the Rohingya as a "national race" and
stripped them of their citizenship under the 1982 Citizenship Law, categorizing them as "non-nationals" or "foreign
residents"; under the Rakhine State Action Plan drafted in October 2014, the Rohingya must demonstrate their
family has lived in Burma for at least 60 years to qualify for a lesser naturalized citizenship and the classification of
Bengali or be put in detention camps and face deportation; native-born but non-indigenous people, such as Indians,
are also stateless; the Burmese Government does not grant citizenship to children born outside of the country to
Burmese parents who left the country illegally or fled persecution, such as those born in Thailand; the number of
stateless persons has decreased dramatically since late 2017 because hundreds of thousands of Rohingya have fled
to Bangladesh since 25 August 2017 to escape violence

Trafficking

current situation: Burma is a source country for men, women, and children trafficked for the purpose of forced labor
and for women and children subjected to sex trafficking; Burmese adult and child labor migrants travel to East Asia,
the Middle East, South Asia, and the US, where men are forced to work in the fishing, manufacturing, forestry, and
construction industries and women and girls are forced into prostitution, domestic servitude, or forced labor in the
garment sector; some Burmese economic migrants and Rohingya asylum seekers have become forced laborers on
Thai fishing boats; some military personnel and armed ethnic groups unlawfully conscript child soldiers or coerce
adults and children into forced labor; domestically, adults and children from ethnic areas are vulnerable to forced
labor on plantations and in mines, while children may also be subject to forced prostitution, domestic service, and
begging

tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List – Burma does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of
trafficking, but it is making significant efforts to do so; the government has a written plan that, if implemented,
would constitute making a significant effort toward meeting the minimum standard for eliminating human
trafficking; in 2014, law enforcement continued to investigate and prosecute cross-border trafficking offenses but
did little to address domestic trafficking; no civilians or government officials were prosecuted or convicted for the
recruitment of child soldiers, a serious problem that is hampered by corruption and the influence of the military;
victim referral and protection services remained inadequate, especially for men, and left victims vulnerable to being
re-trafficked; the government coordinated anti-trafficking programs as part of its five-year national action plan
(2015)

Drugs

 world's second largest producer of illicit opium with an estimated poppy cultivation totaling 55,500 hectares
in 2015 and an estimated potential production of 647 mt of raw opium; Shan state is the source of 91% of
Burma's poppy cultivation; lack of government will to take on major narcotrafficking groups and lack of
serious commitment against money laundering continues to hinder the overall antidrug effort; major source
of methamphetamine and heroin for regional consumption.
New York Declaration

At the UN Summit, the world came together around one plan. Member States have reached agreement by
consensus on a powerful outcome document.

The New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants expresses the political will of world leaders to save lives,
protect rights and share responsibility on a global scale. At the UN Summit on 19 September, we expect to hear from
world leaders about how each country will implement these commitments. Refugees, migrants, those who assist
them, and their host countries and communities will all benefit if these commitments are met.

View the full text of the New York Declaration.

What are the commitments?

The New York Declaration contains bold commitments both to address the issues we face now and to prepare the
world for future challenges. These include commitments to:

 Protect the human rights of all refugees and migrants, regardless of status. This includes the rights of
women and girls and promoting their full, equal and meaningful participation in finding solutions.
 Ensure that all refugee and migrant children are receiving education within a few months of arrival.
 Prevent and respond to sexual and gender-based violence.
 Support those countries rescuing, receiving and hosting large numbers of refugees and migrants.
 Work towards ending the practice of detaining children for the purposes of determining their migration
status.
 Strongly condemn xenophobia against refugees and migrants and support a global campaign to counter
it.
 Strengthen the positive contributions made by migrants to economic and social development in their
host countries.
 Improve the delivery of humanitarian and development assistance to those countries most affected,
including through innovative multilateral financial solutions, with the goal of closing all funding gaps.
 Implement a comprehensive refugee response, based on a new framework that sets out the
responsibility of Member States, civil society partners and the UN system, whenever there is a large
movement of refugees or a protracted refugee situation.
 Find new homes for all refugees identified by UNHCR as needing resettlement; and expand the
opportunities for refugees to relocate to other countries through, for example, labour mobility or
education schemes.
 Strengthen the global governance of migration by bringing the International Organization for Migration
into the UN system.

What will happen next?

The New York Declaration also contains concrete plans for how to build on these commitments:

 Start negotiations leading to an international conference and the adoption of a global compact for safe,
orderly and regular migration in 2018. The agreement to move toward this comprehensive framework is
a momentous one. It means that migration, like other areas of international relations, will be guided by a
set of common principles and approaches.
 Develop guidelines on the treatment of migrants in vulnerable situations. These guidelines will be
particularly important for the increasing number of unaccompanied children on the move.
 Achieve a more equitable sharing of the burden and responsibility for hosting and supporting the world’s
refugees by adopting a global compact on refugees in 2018.